Kids in Cages? Biden Explores Migrant Detainment As Border Strategy Flounders

The White House is considering reinstating a Trump-era policy to detain migrant families crossing into the United States in what amounts to a major reversal of immigration policy for President Joe Biden.

The policy, known as Title 42, was instituted during the pandemic and allowed immigration officials to immediately detain and deport individuals who made unauthorized crossings over ports of entry. Despite heavy criticism from progressive Democrats like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Biden immigration officials admit it led to more than two million deportations and the steepest drop in border crossings in two years.

Democrats’ consternation reached a fever pitch on Monday when the Wall Street Journal reported that Biden was considering extending Title 42 after it expires on May 11. Asked about the controversy earlier today, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not confirm or deny “rumors” regarding Biden’s about face.

The Hill spoke with other Democrats on Capitol Hill for their reactions:

“Locking immigrant families and children into cages along the border is dangerous, ineffective, and wrong,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), a newly-elected House progressive from the state’s 35th congressional district, said on Tuesday. “It is dangerous and wrong to incarcerate refugee children, regardless of political party.”

“We can’t go back,” said Casar, a Latino and freshman congressman whose campaign was backed by Justice Democrats.

He suggested that Biden’s possible embrace of what Republicans used during the Trump years after the temporary Title 42 policy ends in early May would be “caving to anti-immigrant fear mongering,” and effectively mimicking the GOP’s playbook.

“It’s infuriating,” Setareh Ghandehari, who serves as advocacy director at the pro-immigration coalition Detention Watch Network, told The Hill.

Until now, criticism of Biden’s immigration policies within his own party have largely been muted. Democratic antagonists like AOC, who famously released photographs of herself crying in front of cages at the Southern Border, have been silent on the latest development and only lobbed half-hearted tweets at Biden since he took office in 2021.

If Title 42 were to expire, the Biden administration estimates daily border crossings could jump by 11,000 and 13,000 individuals per day.

President Trump headlined the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last week where we promised to break his own records for mass deportations if elected again. Under his administration, Trump said, supplies for a nationwide border wall were stockpiled but were taken away and “hidden” by Biden after he took office.